Chapter 9
By year's end, the Kingdom of Hesse had shed its midsummer heat, and Megalith City's afternoons had grown livelier for it.
From above, one could see the city's districts carved apart by broad main roads, each teeming with figures of every kind.
Not all of them were human.
There were dwarves here and there, elves, even fae—beings of pure energy that drifted through the air like living wisps of light.
With the entire Blythean Empire purging cultists and criminals, many dangerous Awakened had fled toward the frontier. As a result, Megalith City's streets now held more than a few rough-looking strangers.
Every so often, the sound of battle echoed through the city.
Those sounds drew the attention of Awakened and sent ordinary civilians hurrying the other way.
Yet amid all the unrest, the central district of Megalith City stayed peaceful.
The Church still received crowds of worshipers every day, and no one dared cause trouble there.
The Academy of Light was just as calm. Awakened students strolled the academy paths, smiling more often than before.
Most of those smiles traced back to the Church issuing missions more frequently—which meant rewards were flowing more freely too.
Clerics and knights were finding it easier to obtain progression resources. Of course they were happy.
But those rewards came with a rising body count.
In just three weeks, Megalith City's Church of Light had lost more than a dozen clergy, seven of them Awakened.
Counting the team that had died supporting Hayan Province, the city was now badly short-handed.
Even so, Elise had recently failed to keep her pace of one mission every two days.
The easy fugitives had mostly been rounded up. Those still in hiding were far more careful.
At the moment, she was walking toward Nolan's courtyard, wondering whether she should start accepting investigation missions as well.
Soon she arrived outside her teacher's courtyard. After feeding mana into the door, she pushed it open and stepped inside.
Nolan, Lina, Sylvia, Anna, and Wylan were all there.
"Elise, good afternoon."
"Sister Elise, may the Light God watch over you."
"Good afternoon, Elise."
Everyone greeted her with smiles.
Elise returned the greetings, then carried a food box over to Nolan and bowed.
"Teacher Nolan, I baked some honeyed fruit rye bread. Please try some."
"Light God above, Elise. Ever since I became your teacher, I've had to eat an extra snack every day. You're going to make me fat."
Nolan sounded like he was refusing, but Elise could feel his good mood.
Lina and the others covered their mouths and laughed.
As Nolan's students, they often made snacks by hand and brought them to him.
That was the true source of his so-called weight problem.
"Dear teacher, perhaps I should learn to make a slimming potion," Elise joked.
At Nolan's gesture, she settled onto a stone chair.
Nolan shook his head with a smile, picked up a piece of bread, and took a bite. After a few words of praise, he called his students and Wylan over to share.
Teacher and students chatted and laughed through their break.
Just as the next lesson was about to begin, someone knocked at the courtyard door.
"I'll get it."
Wylan had been helping around Nolan's courtyard lately and had grown quick on his feet. He called out and ran for the gate.
Before long, he came back with a letter in his hands.
He stopped in front of Elise and presented it with both hands.
"Cleric Elise, this is for you."
"Thank you."
Elise accepted the letter, puzzled.
Then she saw the smiling face drawn on the envelope, and Lia sprang instantly to mind.
She opened it.
The moment she saw the contents, she couldn't stop herself from muttering, "What is this?"
"Elise?" Nolan looked at her with concern.
"Teacher, this letter is from Lia, granddaughter of Archbishop Vesserdali of the Undying Court." Elise's tone turned strange. "It seems to be... a call for help?"
"Archbishop?"
Nolan's expression sharpened.
In the churches of Aurelia, a Third-tier Awakened could hold the office of Bishop and was addressed as such by custom. The title of Archbishop, however, belonged only to Fourth-tier powerhouses.
Nolan grasped Lia's background the moment he heard it.
And a member of the Undying Court had sent Elise a letter asking for help?
That was no small matter.
"Teacher, let me finish reading first," Elise said.
She kept scanning the letter.
Only then did she piece together what had happened.
Vesserdali had gone off to fight for progression resources on Lia's behalf. Lia, who needed to train independently anyway, had been traveling alone of late.
Then she'd returned to Megalith City—a frontier settlement teetering on the edge of chaos—and set up a little insurance.
Lia didn't believe she could be killed. Her grandfather had planted triggered Fourth-tier spells inside her body.
But she was afraid of being captured.
So she had prepared a letter in advance and told a tavern servant that if she failed to show her face for two days straight, the letter should be delivered to Elise of the Church of Light.
As for the letter's contents...
It was a denunciation.
A long one.
Lia—mentally about the age of a middle schooler from Earth, though she looked only seven or eight—had gone wild exposing Awakened across Megalith City.
A Cleric of the Shadow Church.
A murderer among the Awakened.
An executioner-knight of the Death Cult.
She reported them all.
Lia's reasoning was simple.
If she'd been trapped, then an Awakened from the world's dark side was probably responsible.
In that case, she would expose as many of them as she could.
Elise was a Cleric of the Church of Light. Handed a report like this, even with no personal friendship involved, she would still investigate and hunt those people down.
And in doing so, she might rescue Lia by accident.
At the very least, Elise could write a letter to Vesserdali.
"Lia really is... kind of adorable."
Elise shook her head and laughed.
To her, Lia's approach had an odd charm to it.
Besides, according to the Church of Light's records, Lia had never committed any serious crime. The worst offense currently attached to her name was "repeatedly dining and dashing."
Elise might not move heaven and earth to rescue her, but having accepted the girl's information, lending a hand along the way was no trouble at all.
"Teacher, here's what happened..."
After finishing the letter, Elise laid out its contents for Nolan.
Nolan frowned and went straight to the key point.
"Anyone capable of capturing the granddaughter of an Undying Court Archbishop must have the strength of a High Cleric at minimum."
"Lia does carry plenty of life-saving measures," Elise agreed.
With a Fourth-tier Archbishop and Archmage for a grandfather, Lia would surely have stocked up on extraordinary items and spell scrolls before traveling alone.
If she'd been trapped despite all that, then whoever moved against her stood beyond the ordinary Second-tier level.
A Second-tier High Cleric?
If so—Standard rank, Senior, or Prime?
Or a Third-tier powerhouse?
No.
If a Third-tier powerhouse had captured Lia, they wouldn't be stirring up trouble in Megalith City.
Unless something like the Hayan Province incident repeats itself, the odds of a Third-tier powerhouse striking Megalith City are very low. The cost far outweighs the reward.
Elise made her decision.
She'd been fretting over her mission drought anyway, and now Lia's report had handed her a list of targets.
If she seized this chance to train hard and run missions at high frequency, she might have a real shot at breaking through to Prime Cleric.
And once she reached Prime Cleric, even coming face-to-face with a Second-tier Awakened inside Megalith City, she should be safe.
Elise gave a light cough.
"Then Operation Save Little Turncoat Lia can officially begin."
A faint smile crossed her face.